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Oh no! There goes my spare time! 

Maybe against my better judgment given my available free time but I've been wanting to take a crack at a MAGS for a while and starting ten days into the shortest month feels pretty on brand for me.

How's progress?

Reiter.

[If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers]

I've spent the last couple of days playing and completing this. Now I'll try it with annotations and commentary and hunt down those last achievements I missed because I solved some puzzles in an optional way. 

The game is very good. The production values are high, with great art, animation, sound, music, voice acting and options. The story is surreal and filled with allusions and symbols, but it's not necessary to have a master's degree in lit to have fun with the game. However, the allusions hit my home territory, so to speak, and I enjoyed seeing another take on what for me was familiar characters.

Most of the time, I knew what to do next, but a couple of times I didn't. Some of the puzzles required me to take a break and simply think through what I'd done so far...and then I'd come up with a suitable plan. I got through the game and found the different endings without using the hint system, but that doesn't mean the game's too easy. It took me a fair few hours, and some of the tasks are quite difficult.

Recommended. However, the game deals with difficult topics, such as death, suicide, grief/depression and hints at more if you interpret the symbols/metaphors in certain ways. It's interesting how it addresses some of the same topics as If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers, but in quite a different manner.

I am not 100%, but the walking and some details look very agsy.

The game is not available yet - and the rest is too french for me to understand 

According to this: https://www.rom-game.fr/news/4772-Gobliiins+5.html there is currently a fundraiser to raise 3000 Euros to complete the game. It's indeed made in AGS.

Milk?

[will]

Marion doesn't only post games here, but she's got a ton of CYO-AGS games on her site that are French only. But last night I thought...what if...?

So I started up Legende d'Eikos while downloading a Google Translate Camera app on my smartphone. Then I pointed the phone's camera at the text on screen, scanned it and got instant translations. I played/read through the entire game that way.

Now, this can't replace a proper translation. The text shifts as the translation AI tries to make sense of it, and when I fail to hold my phone level (or still), it's all over the place. My camera would frequently read " l' " as a t, for instance. The writing won't be as good either, but the meaning comes across. I found that this worked okay with Marion's game, as the text stays on screen for a long time, and much of the story is told through the images (her being a graphic novel artist). I won't get the same experience reading the descriptions, but I will understand the options I can choose from.

I understand that this tech isn't new, but for me, it's science fiction.

I finished it, for once with full points and not needing to replay to search for the extras.  This one was just as fun as the two first in the series. Excellent writing, puzzle design, lovable characters and an intriguing plot. It's amazing that you manage so effortlessly to make the game so humorous while at the same time exciting and grisly. The graphics are still very PQ, with lots of animations to gawk at. Perhaps there was a bit many cut scenes this time around? I honestly didn't mind. Great entertainment.

This one should definitely have been in the FYC thread.

When someone asks for help in the Hints and Tips thread, but puts the entire question in Spoiler tags. Then you have no idea if this is the same place you are stuck yourself, and must risk either asking something someone else asked before, or unintentionally reading about something occurring later on in the game if you reveal the spoiler. And you don't know if you can help, either, unless you have completed the whole game.

[The Secret of Drom Bennacht]

Seeing as there are a few games in this series already, I thought perhaps it would be fun to share some thoughts and ideas among us who have played one or more of the games.

The Wandering Wizard lists the series as The Occultist - Old Growth, Heart of Abraxas, The Town on the Edge of Darkness, The thirty-first, Julia and the lost game The Secret of Drom Bennacht.


He does not include Alpha X Tech Demo or Alpha X - Project: Smash
However:

Spoiler

These games take place in the future, after a catastrophic event which have destroyed all records of what happened. It's probably not intended to be a part of the Esper series, but one could easily make a theory that this may be the future of the Esper timeline, or perhaps a possible future.

[close]

Here are some of my thoughts after playing The Occultist - Old Growth:

Spoiler

There is a huge evil entity that the occultist doesn't defeat in this game. While the player may defeat the large demon, it's hinted that there is a huge, cognizing fungus growing underneath the entire wood, making it an evil place somehow. But can this entity possibly communicate with other evils in the series? Perhaps by commandeering demons or wraiths? It's unclear to me what this entity wants to do, what its project is.

There is also some unanswered questions. There seems to have been a demonic cult in the tower and the surrounding area. Are they all dead? Are the shadow wraiths hanging from trees showing us that the evil made them all kill themselves? If so, who maintains the tower? And the shed? Of course, these may merely be plot holes, but where's the fun in discussing that? 

[close]

Feel free to chime in.

Terror Within Hawk Manor is at
http://www.mediafire.com/file/c549h5j9o9agt1j/Hawk_Manor.zip/file
https://legendsworld.net/adventure/game/15565

Look at me, look at my face, does it look like I care about school?
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ee0liijzg2sd8q2/look_at_me._look_at_my_face._does_it_look_like_i_care_about_school.rar/file

ICBM is at https://gamejolt.com/games/icbm/57197

Some more games with missing or not-working links:

The three piggies â€" a remediation is at
https://github.com/KostisMon/Three-Little-Pigies--Remediation/tree/master/Compiled

The Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs is at
https://archive.org/details/the-big-bad-wolf-and-the-three-little-pigs

Foggy Dawn is at
https://archive.org/details/foggy-dawn-v1.1

I finished the game - there wasn't much after the puzzle with the Spanish password phrase, but in one week there's understandably a need to keep things short. The game captures the dreamy mood with music and graphics. The choices you make in the game are deeply rooted in philosophy, but I agree with Wiggy that this doesn't come as well across in the English translation due to the Spanish password phrase puzzle. So if you know Spanish, you're better off playing that version.

It feels like there could have been inserted a longer story in this, and that what I've played is merely the beginning and the end. I would have liked to see a longer version, perhaps showing more of the differences between the two creatures' realms.

Aha! I finally understood your clue/solution! The password:

Spoiler

It's NOT three riddles where you are supposed to find three words! It's simply typing in all the text in all the three clues! Oh my!

[close]

Thanks, Wiggy!

For some reason, this one has gathered dust in my 2021 folder since I downloaded it, waiting for its day...and yesterday I started, playing the first segment (Phyllis and the cookies). And I instantly love it. I guess I will have to find a place for this one, too, in my much-amended nominations.  I will probably post again after completing it.

I played the prologue today. I haven't seen Stranger Things, so my association goes to Stephen King stories with a bunch of kids who dare each other.

The art is looking good. The portraits in colour drew my attention, so I missed the talking animations at first. I also at first missed the animation in the window. Are you planning to colour in your art, or keep it sketch-like?

I wish I had read your post here right before playing. Now I right-clicked away to no avail. Perhaps some in-game notification to the player about controls at the start will be a good idea.

I very much like the idea of being able to swap characters later in the game in order to use their special skills. In fact, why don't you make an example right in the prologue by letting the handyman do the sawing? It's user-friendly to show the game mechanics early on. The characters all seem likable, and the banter between them is entertaining. More of that, please! It helps the player relate to the characters.

The story of the alleged haunted house may be a well-used story...but that is because it works! Almost everyone know about such a place, especially from their childhood. I had no trouble relating to the boys and how they (seemingly) walk head-first into trouble. I hope you finish this! I'd really love to see the whole story.

If there's anything in specific you want feedback about, feel free to ask.  Good work so far!

More voice work for the spreadsheet:

Strangeland
Crepe Fields: A Scare among Crows
Sphonx Tech Demo
A Curious Pastime (Speech during intro)

[Getting the Picture]

Out of curiousity, did those of you who reached the secret level in Getting the Picture reach it by

Spoiler

finding the hidden point in-game or by getting the second chance triggered by acing all the question points?

[close]

Spoiler

The second chance. I went through the game multiple times trying to brute force my way to full points and spotted the inventory GUI a few runs in. First I figured you'd forgotten to disable it, then I read the descriptions and thought that was the joke. Didn't think about trying to use them on anything until I got the second chance ending.

[close]

Thanks, that useful to know. I added it because I thought perhaps the first method would be too difficult.

Spoiler

Actually, the inventory bar is helpful in other ways, too. In addition to showing points, there's the obvious kind-of-cheat feature of simply saving your game.  There are descriptions for using the items in most locations, but there are limits for how many gags I could think of. But I'm pleased with the Picasso ladies' responses.

[close]

[Prep Time]

2) The only way to share a screenshot is through "upload from computer" function. So you can't use Imgur.

Well, my imgur pics for Prep Time are showing. I pasted the link into the input box, and it seemed to work, at least. Unless AGA has helped me out invisibly...

Your game is showing now, so it could be just a server hiccup. Downloading! 

I got a lock-up like that when I tried to upload my game with screenshots on my local drive. It worked fine when I put the images on imgur instead.

EDIT: You could perhaps also try to upload without the screenshots and try to add them later? (Then you will find out if that was the problem.)